Research development and application of coal bunker cleaning robot

The coalbunkers are widely used in China and the existing quantity of coal is huge.. Caked coals, blocked coals and frozen coals have been a problem for coal mining enterprises and power plants for long. The interior of the coalbunker is a cylinder, and there are multiple square cone-shaped blanking openings at the bottom. The blanking openings are usually one meter square, which is much smaller than the inner diameter of the coalbunker. The raw coal falls from top to bottom by its own weight. This structural determines that the flow rate of raw coal near the cone-shaped blanking opening is slow, squeezed and easy to be blocked by the wall. In addition, in case of fine coal particles, with high water content and long storage time, the wall sticking is more likely to occur, and the wall sticking makes the coal flow channel narrower and the flow rate slower, and then it gradually develops into blocked coals, which is difficult to completely avoid. In areas with very low temperature in wall, the coal with high water content will also form a frozen wall, which will gradually develop into a frozen block, which is more difficult to dredge. At present, coal mines rely on manual inspection to find the blockage, regular manual cleaning of the wall, and manual dredging. Personnel must drill into the coal bunker to manually clean it. The work environment is harsh, labor-intensive, time-consuming, and ineffective. Every year, there are casualties caused by manual coal bunker cleaning. Furthermore, the freezing and blocking coal that are ineffective for small shots can only wait for the next year to warm up, which will reduce the utilization rate of the coal bunker and affect the normal production of the coal mine enterprises and the power plant. In order to solve the above problems, a set of all-round intelligent cleaning robot system for coal storage silos has been developed with special industrial robot technology and control algorithm. A set of robotic execution units powered by hydraulic pressure, capable of reciprocating movement, and breaking coal are installed inside the coal mouth, controlled by the robot cluster control software. According to the signals of the blocked coal monitoring sensor and other sensors arranged at each blanking openings, it can automatically monitor and judge the state of blocked coals in the coalbunker, automatically selecting the optimal cleaning measures to control the relevant robots and to coordinate the action, and quickly restore the smoothness of the blanking openings. The whole system is fully automatic and unattended, which can quickly and effectively solve the problems of poor coal falling and blocking in the coalbunker, such as caked coals, blocked coals, frozen coals, and so on. It avoids the possibility of casualties caused by manual blockage removal, solves the pain points that have plagued coal mines and power plants for a long time, and improves the operational safety of coal storage systems. This paper describes the operation mechanism, installation layout, prototype test and application effect of the coalbunker blocks clearing robot in details, and proves that the coalbunker blocks clearing robot is an effective means to solve the problems of poor coal falling and blocking in the coalbunker, such as caked coals, blocked coals, frozen coals, etc.